Gun people cannot have it both ways -- stifling data collection and data disclosure concerning firearms use, while at the same time grandstanding about demographic trends in gun ownership based purely on anecdote and speculation.

The real challenge in social media is not reaching the folks who are already committed to what you believe; it's reaching the folks who can become committed because they like the way you say it, and this video says it better than it's ever been said.

The trends don't look too good for those who want to build a sizable coalition of voters for future legislative battles over guns. Maybe the old tactics of the NRA emphasizing responsible gun ownership and professionalism were better than the "in your face" style today.

Whether they know it or not, the ATF's decision to shelve its new armor-piercing guideline is actually a victory for all of us who want laws to be reasonable, responsible and fashioned to reflect both reality plus a dose of good old common sense.

Several members of various state legislators have trotted out the idea that what is missing from college campuses, particularly the hands of 18-year-old women, are six shooters, or even better, semi-automatic handguns.

Unsurprisingly, the United States does indeed have a lower homicide rate than countries in the middle of civil war, run by despots, or struggling with crippling poverty. Should we really be patting ourselves on the back that our homicide rate just barely beats out Yemen?

Vaccinations protect the human species against diseases for which there is no cure once the infection occurs. In this respect, vaccines become the cure for certain diseases through prevention, whereas we usually think of being cured as what doctors do to us after we get sick.

As this debate polarizes the American public, Catholic values can mobilize the country's 70 million Catholics and provide a unifying voice of hope for a future with less violence. Now the only questions is, when will they?

With the NRA now publicizing its 2015 annual meeting in Nashville, it seems like a good time to revisit last year's frenzied, speaking-in-tongues tent revival, along with some of the ideas on the relationship between guns and freedom prompted by NRA nuttiness.

The fact that someone has a propensity to behave violently doesn't ipso facto mean that they would ever express this anger by using a gun. But there is no other form of personal behavior that is as dangerous and costly as pulling a trigger at yourself or someone else. Wouldn't it be much easier to just get rid of the guns?

In terms of playing to the public's softer side, we might understand the logic behind a visual strategy of bringing the kids. But when you really look at it, the optic of family values just doesn't mix well with the optic of gun rights advocacy.

Response-inhibition training shows exciting potential as a training method for police and the military. The findings might also lead to more insights into cognition and firearms, insights with the potential to reduce society's death toll.

Typically, pro-gun activists are coy when confronted about their perverted belief that the Second Amendment provides an individual right to shoot and kill government officials in response to perceived "tyranny." But last week, a threat that is so often implicit was made perfectly explicit by a leader in Texas' open-carry movement.